Taliban targeting US 'collaborators' discreetly; will execute unless they surrender: UN

Taliban was intensifying  hunt for Afghans who worked for NATO and US forces, UN warned in a document, prompting Facebook to introduce new security measures to tighten privacy of Afghan nationals. In a major step to protect Afghan people from Taliban retribution, for instance, introduced a one-click tool for Afghan nationals to lock down ir profiles instantly as well as hide “friends” lists and restrict content orwise on public view. social media platform also banned Taliban linked account in an attempt to suppress reprisals against Afghans having connections with West.

Despite promising that re would be " revenge" at a press event earlier,  hardline Islamist group was targeting "collaborators" discreetly, a confidential document by RHIPTO rwegian Center for Global Analyses, an intelligence wing of  UN revealed. Unless y surrender willingly, Taliban will behe, execute, prosecute and shoot families of those who assisted US troops during deployment of foreign forces on Afghan soil. Those on Taliban's blacklist were in grave danger, intelligence warned in report to UN. 

Acting on UN's report, social media companies including Facebook scrambled to put in place security measures to help encour safety of people in Afghanistan. Reports emerged that Taliban was conducting home raids and door-to-door searches tracing perpetrators via US biometrics records, digital databases and social media. Facebook has me changes to accounts whose location traced back into Afghanistan, implementing requests that poured in from stranded journalists, Afghan interpreters and civil society groups in Kabul.

NBC reported earlier that panicked Afghans were deleting accounts from ir social media in fear of Taliban terror. Any photo or text on Facebook account that depicted ir links with West may le to harrowing consequences for ir physical safety. Many of those that were most frightened were Afghans loyal to ousted Ashraf Ghani government or Afghan military. 

When Afghans use social media safety tools such as recently introduced one-click tool to lock ir accounts, body would be able to downlo or share ir profile photo or see posts on ir timeline, Facebook's he of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher wrote on Twitter.  As chaos ensues in Afghanistan with Taliban carrying out a home-to-home manhunt, Gleicher explained that people must utilize Facebook tools to avoid being targeted or traced via social media. Facebook asked those outside Afghanistan to educate ir friends in country to tighten visibility settings on Facebook accounts for more safety. Taliban has been banned officially from Facebook platforms, including WhatsApp.

'Organised searches' for media reporters

Having earlier killed India's journalist for Reuters Danish Siddiqui, Taliban has w been raiding homes of several on-field reporters. On Sunday, August 15, German brocasters Deutsche Welle (DW) and or major German news media wrote an urgent letter to Germany's Merkel government to help evacuate ir Afghan staff back to Germany and expedite visa process for Afghani media staff that were hiding. In midst of appeals,  Taliban on August 20, Friday killed a family member of a journalist for DW as y barged into his home asking for reporter's whereabouts. As one relative was shot in he on spot, one or was injured while rest mand to flee at last minute and have been since on run, a DW article revealed. 

''Life in Kabul has become extremely risky for employees of international media organizations," letter's content dispatched to German government, accessed by multiple news outlets re. "re are growing concerns that Taliban will take revenge against our employees," and  "lives of se freelance [Afghan] staff are w in acute danger," letter signed by scores of press signatories dressed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, stated. 

Im: AP